MAHONY, William Short (b.1842) and family. Photographic archive.

MAHONY, William Short (b.1842) and family. A small archive comprising: two 1/4 plate daguerreotypes in matching leather cases of a gentleman and a lady; a 1/6 plate daguerreotype of a young boy; three cabinet cards (+1 duplicate) of the same man in mariner's attire, taken at Largs and Oban, Scotland; one cabinet card of a bearded man in naval uniform taken in Southampton; and a North British & Mercantile Insurance Company renewal policy receipt for William Short Mahony. The daguerreotype of the man has a corrosion spot on his lapel and fogging to the lower torso, and the daguerreotype case of the lady has a rebacked joint. Otherwise all items are in very good condition.

The daguerreotype of the young boy and the three cabinet card portraits all feature the same person, and can be identified as William Short Mahony Esq, the subject of the insurance document, and we can assume that the couple in the daguerreotypes are his parents (with whom there is a close likeness). William Short Mahony was born about 1842 in Essex to Michael John Mahony, iron broker, and Ellen Lucy Crawley (who married in 1837 in Stepney, London). Michael Mahoney was a partner in the firm of Short & Mahony, metal brokers of Cornhill, London, who it happens were defendants in a case before the High Court of Chancery about the time the daguerreotypes were taken (see the Law Journal 1848). William married Hermina Lydia Stow in 1876 in Southampton (GRO certificate comes with the archive), who was the daughter of William Crawford Stow, architect and surveyor. In the 1891 census William, described as a 'member of the stock exchange', is living in Kensington with his wife Hermina, his son William, and cousin Mary Stow.